There is no worse cancer in a free society than the thuggish impulse to equate dissent as disloyalty… The greatest patriot is the person with the courage to be the lone voice in the crowd crying out that the Emperor has no clothes. The test of our society’s democratic nature is our instinct to . . . → Read More: Akaash Maharaj – Practical Idealism: TVO’s The Agenda: The New McCarthyism

Over the past quarter century, political parties have too often lurched away from being mass movements of individual Canadians sharing a common vision of the public good, and towards being backdrops for individual party leaders who speak the language of democracy while wielding near-absolute power over their elected caucuses.

The 20th century began as the age of the dictator. It ended with liberalism having come of age as the ascendant political philosophy across the world. Yet liberal parties everywhere are in crisis. Can they grow with the success of liberalism, or have they been outgrown by the success of their own political philosophy?

Speaking on TVOntario’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, I make the case that separation of church and state is as much in the interests of the church as it is in the interests of the state. However, upholding the ideal of the secular state often demands more courage than we might expect.

In the wake of the Quebecois Nation issue, TV Ontario’s The Agenda asks if politics and principles are Canada’s true twin solitudes. With Steve Paikin as moderator, Val Meredith for the Conservatives, Robin Sears for the NDP, and I for the Liberals.